101 Shocking Wrestling Plans You Won't Believe Almost Happened
45. Yokozuna Teaming With Konnan In WCW
Yokozuna burned brightly then faded away between 1992-1996. The multi-time WWF Champion had packed on more weight than ever before towards the end of his core run, and that bulk would contribute towards his death aged just 34 in 2000. Before that sad ending, Yoko was in talks about making his mark on WCW.
Scott Hall and Konnan were heavily into the idea of bringing the Samoan star to Nitro in 1997. Yokozuna still had significant name value hanging over from the WWF, and he was great pals with both. Besides, he could always return the favour to Hulk Hogan in a money-spinning pay-per-view rematch following their King Of The Ring '93 effort.
So, you just know that big Hollywood was into the signing himself. 'That works for me, brother!'.
According to Konnan, Yoko was a massive fan of his 'K-Dogg' character in the nWo. The Mexican worker had started cultivating a cool hip hop influence, and that'd eventually lead to the formation of the spin-off Wolfpac faction within the New World Order. It sounds like Yokozuna wanted to do something similar and completely mix things up by moving away from his sumo wrestler guise.
Konnan later described this would-be Yoko repackaging as "a Samoan gangster" who'd "have [his] back". This adds up, because working tag-team bouts would've been more realistic for the man given his girth and the stress on his joints if he tried wrestling lengthy singles matches.
Negotiations fell apart though, and Yoko would never grace WCW during the 'Monday Night Wars'.